Racial Storylines

[TheLadyOfTheRings.9148]

Hi everyone!

So now that elder dragons won't be a threat anymore at least for a while, I was thinking that each race could go back to focusing on their own racial issues and conflicts with their radical groups. 

But as I was thinking about this I remembered that the Sons of Svanir and the Flame Legion are somewhat disbanded, correct? So for Norn and Charr storylines I don't know which group(s) could represent a threat - there's the Renegades and Separatists for Charr, but for Norn they pretty much only had the Sons of Svanir to worry about, if I'm not mistaken. 

Not sure where exactly the Nightmare Court stands, as their leader was defeated way back in HoT. 

The Humans still have all the bandits and pirates, and the Asura have the Inquest. 

What are your thoughts about this? And would you like to have more racial story from now on?

Thank you for your contributions to this discussion 🙂

[maxwelgm.4315]

Spoilers ahead. Anet has moved away from racial storylines for a variety of reasons (some probably related to writer preferences and other real life factors after writers changed like 3 times?). They wrapped up most conflicts in purpose - and the ones that remain are frankly minor and not likely to be given that much attention later on, such as bandits (that were canonically all working for White Mantle, now disbanded), or Sons of Svanir (now gone and the Norn frankly were never portrayed as particularly involved in conflicts, quite the opposite).

 

We will probably get some more human-centric conflicts such as Jade Brotherhood/Speakers but likely focusing also on Tengu and interactions with Tyrian races rather than just the people of Cantha. The Inquest have also since long time ago taken a more global approach that goes beyond it being a conflict of the Asura alone - and they are likely to at least be mentioned down the line as well given that they were precisely experimenting with combinations of dragon magics AKA the dragonvoid. The Charr still have ghosts to deal with, so that would be one possible closure to get.

 

One real bummer is that the Nightmare has been all but erased from the narrative which is a bit of a gap that makes less sense than the others not to mention. I don't mean the Nightmare court only but Nightmare in itself, just like the Dream, are both things we still have little knowledge about in spite of how central they are to the Sylvari. Not developing it further is a bit baffling because Sylvari supposedly continue to thrive and emerge with Wyld hunts - and that's not a mysterious outlier race we are talking about but rather one of the main and playable ones.

[Zola.6197]

Humans had a plot line with the centaurs that would’ve come up in Icebrood Saga, but the devs decided to save for later.

 

Charr could focus on the status quo post-war. They have to choose a new Khan-Ur or decide to move away from that form of government. They also still have ghosts to contend with, and the plot about cleansing them from Ascalon was never really resolved.

 

Not sure what is left for norn beyond returning to their ancestral lands, but I’m sure the devs could come up with a norn centric story if they wanted.

[Sajuuk Khar.1509]

2 hours ago, Zola.6197 said:

Not sure what is left for norn beyond returning to their ancestral lands,

That's pretty much what we did in Icebrood Saga.

[Desh.7028]

Some threads were probably kept unresolved on purpose so open world and Dungeon encounters continue to make sense.

 

For humans:

Bandits will always exists and Centaurs are being periodically driven back and then return. White Mantle running around are just a leaderless remnant now that you haven't gotten around to punch yet.

 

Asura:

Inquest still is and has always been fully accepted by the Asuran leadership. Nothing change or is going to change. It is not Asura vs Inquest but specifically the Commander and cronies vs Inquest. The only non-human faction that I'd expect to rear their ugly oversized heads in Cantha.

 

Norn, Charr:

Icebrood Saga is exactly about this. And even EoD conversations touch up on it.

 

Sylvari:

They just forgot about them. The Nightmare Court lost a lot of numbers to Mordremoth (and the Commander), the status quo being what the Duneon says with no further development. The weird plants in Kaineng might be of interest to our evil siblings but I doubt they'd make the journey.

I don't expect it but anything Nightmare Court will be very welcome. No bias here. 

[Kalavier.1097]

13 minutes ago, Desh.7028 said:

Sylvari:

They just forgot about them. The Nightmare Court lost a lot of numbers to Mordremoth (and the Commander), the status quo being what the Duneon says with no further development. The weird plants in Kaineng might be of interest to our evil siblings but I doubt they'd make the journey.

I don't expect it but anything Nightmare Court will be very welcome. No bias here. 

 

As I've said in RP chats about it.

 

Nightmare Court only truly makes sense to go where there is a  population of Sylvari. Given how they are driven to spread the nightmare, it'd be weird to see any real numbers of them going anywhere, if there wasn't a decent group of Sylvari to try to convert.

[Wolfb.7025]

Charr still has to deal with Ghosts, Separatists, some ogres now and then, the branded, Flame Legon loyal to Gaheron although just probably an underwhelming minority but they still there.

[Sajuuk Khar.1509]

1 hour ago, Wolfb.7025 said:

Charr still has to deal with Ghosts, Separatists, some ogres now and then, the branded, Flame Legon loyal to Gaheron although just probably an underwhelming minority but they still there.

• The Branded(at least in Charr lands) have been pretty much all wiped out by the time IBS starts according to Bangar.
• The remaining Flame Legion have made peace with everyone following the other races helping to defend te Flame Citadel during Champions.
• The Renegades and Separatists have lost any real power or influence following the deaths of Caudicus, Bangar, and Ajax, who were funding/leading them, and the years of Human/Charr cooperation whittling down hatred between the two races.

Really only the Ghosts are left as a real issue.

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

10 hours ago, TheLadyOfTheRings.9148 said:

Hi everyone!

So now that elder dragons won't be a threat anymore at least for a while, I was thinking that each race could go back to focusing on their own racial issues and conflicts with their radical groups. 

But as I was thinking about this I remembered that the Sons of Svanir and the Flame Legion are somewhat disbanded, correct? So for Norn and Charr storylines I don't know which group(s) could represent a threat - there's the Renegades and Separatists for Charr, but for Norn they pretty much only had the Sons of Svanir to worry about, if I'm not mistaken. 

Not sure where exactly the Nightmare Court stands, as their leader was defeated way back in HoT. 

The Humans still have all the bandits and pirates, and the Asura have the Inquest. 

What are your thoughts about this? And would you like to have more racial story from now on?

Thank you for your contributions to this discussion 🙂

Renegades were the foundation of the Dominion. They're wiped out too, by Crecia after Jormag Rising according to her in Ebonhawke DRM. Bandits are similarly no longer a huge issue - while some pockets likely remain, the vast majority of them were funded, organized, led, and manipulated by the White Mantle who've been almost (if not fully) completely wiped out. And with both Taidha and Aetherblades gone, there's no united front for pirates for them to be an issue without a new up-and-coming uniter of evil-doers coming out of thin air Scarlet style.

 

The only "racial enemies" that remain are Nightmare Court, Separatists, Foefire ghosts, Inquest, and Centaurs.

But the former two were heavily damaged at the end of Heart of Thorns and Season 3 respectively. Though the Nightmare Court plot could also fit in some story about sylvari who turned into Mordrem Guard (and whether or not, and how, they recover - both Nightmare and Dream sylvari turned), as well as Malyck.

And Icebrood Saga made it clear that the Separatists have been gaining momentum again at the beginning, with having sympathizers in Ebonhawke still, and could indeed pose a threat in the future. Though the Ebonhawke DRM did paint it as if most people gave up on that stuff, so it's hard to say, and with the peace treaty formally signed off-screen at some point between S2E4 and S4E4, I don't see them being a big half-plot like White Mantle or Dominion were.

 

Most likely, I could see them combining all remaining sylvari loose threads (aforementioned stuff + origin of Dream / Nightmare, and how the Pale Tree got cleansed), or combining the Separatists with Foefire ghosts plot (and maybe some remnant Flame Legion of no actual importance), or using the centaurs to create an episode that introduces a bigger plot that lasts the full season, ala Grothmar Wardowns leading into the icebrood stuff and resurgence of Renegades rebranded as Dominion. Something that leads us to exploring the lands to the far east for example.

 

The Inquest and Kuda, however, I could see being a Caudecus / Joko-level plot that takes half a season.

Edited March 18, 2022 by Konig Des Todes.2086

[TheLadyOfTheRings.9148]

55 minutes ago, Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

The Inquest and Kuda, however, I could see being a Caudecus / Joko-level plot that takes half a season.

And this would be very fitting of an asura-focused expansion/living world, which we haven't had yet 🙂

(that I'm aware of, at least? HoT was very sylvari-focused, PoF was mostly human but touching on charr as well with the Olmakhan, Icebrood Saga was norn and charr)

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

1 hour ago, TheLadyOfTheRings.9148 said:

And this would be very fitting of an asura-focused expansion/living world, which we haven't had yet 🙂

(that I'm aware of, at least? HoT was very sylvari-focused, PoF was mostly human but touching on charr as well with the Olmakhan, Icebrood Saga was norn and charr)

Well if you count touching the charr with Olmakhan, then every living world season (but no expansion) has touched the asura via Inquest. And, well, asura also got Rata Novus in HoT.

But I wouldn't consider either to be "focus" on those races at all.

Even IBS barely touched norn, despite what some would pester me in contention about.